Shoulder cover retaining strip making me swear

[Hodgins]

The screwhead to undo to be able to knock the strip back has rusted away completely. Is there another way of removing it (I suspect the strip itself may well be pretty much rust too) without mullering the shoulder piece as my van has some nice patina. I was thinking of getting a wood drift and seeing if I can persuade it off that way after removing the seal for wriggle room?

Thoughts please? :?

 

[ozziedog]

Morning :mrgreen: Not sure if I`ve heard the term `shoulder cover ` before. Might be a local thing. Before I guess ,, could you describe the part. I`m guessing the spring covers for the tailgate or the swage line slider cover which has also probably got a very techy name :mrgreen:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Whatever it is,,,,,, someone will have a plan :| :mrgreen:

 

[gvee]

I'm going to assume that autocorrect meant "slider cover"!

First up; are you sure you have undone *all* the screws that hold it on? There's one hidden at the handle end which gets hidden by the U bracket a but when open.

 

[sparkywig]

There's another screw from the inside, on the C pillar.

If it's that stuck the whole thing may be rusted together and require some force/damage to remove.

 

[ozziedog]

Geeee suss George, You are an out and out , one hundred per cent, died in the wool, genuiiiiiiine, made to measure, absolute Genius :idea: :idea: :idea: . I didn`t even think of auto correct , :roll: Now is that because you are way way way below the age of fifty and I`m way above the age of fifty So you got two screws at the door end and that`s one in and one out side. You should have another outside at the opposite end by the air vent, you`ve also got the nut on the threaded end by the door outside and you also have the tension from the bumpy bit that is connected to the threaded end. That`s all the fixings I guess.
Then you got the plastic / vinyl gasket between the cover and the body, now all of that is brilliant but mostly it`s `nature`helping to hold it together were natures own brand of adhesive,,,, `Rust`. The way I`d go about it, is spray a decent penetrating oil over all the fixings and anywhere you can get in especially around the bumpy strip, something like penetrol, not WD40. Leave it soak overnight then do it again. Loosen all fixings and tap the threaded bar back towards the vent. If I don`t move, soak it some more as you might get a little more in if you`ve moved it a tad. The bit that the bumpy bar sits in which is like a U channel and flat on one side and a negative of the bumpy bar on the other.
So from a side profile you have the side of the van, then the flat side of the U channel then the plastic / vinyl gasket then the flat part of the side cover then the bumpy bar with the threaded drag bolt at one end then the other side of the Uchannel complete with bump negatives.
So get a thin scraper if you can`t budge anything and try and gently push it into each side of the plastiky gasket and lever bit by bit and every time you move it a bit then get some more penetrol into it. Once you`ve separated the gasket and generally worked it up and out,then you`re home and hosed :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Don`t try a blowlamp

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, So how do I know this :mrgreen: :roll: :mrgreen:

 

[Hodgins]

Thanks Chaps I have all of the relevant screws off the shoulder cover(must be a localism as no autocorrect involved this time). It's the screw for the actual retaining strip which has lost it's head entirely. Meaning I can't loosen it to drive the strip back enough to release it.
So all I could think was to coerce it up and off with the drift and hammer after giving it some wriggle room by removing the seal, which was pretty much solid with age anyway.

Does that make sense? :?

 

[ozziedog]

Yes, I think I`m following you. If all the screws are out then it`s only interference holding it and natures own adhesive(rust) rusting it to the gasket / strip. If you can coax this out as it has a bead on the top of it with a very thin scraper and penetrol, mine took several hours to get off but spread over a couple of days as I was trying not to be too brutal with it :roll:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,, Great feeling when it did eventually come off :mrgreen:

 

[Hodgins]

Thanks So what about what's left of the screw thread that holds the retaining strip in place? Is there another way to get it to undo enough?

 

[ozziedog]

Are you talking about the strip with all the bumps in it, because mine has a bar welded to the bumpy strip with a thread on the last half inch so I`m guessing I had a nut on there, looks original though / very rusty. Thinking about it, that`s off of a 72 and I can`t quite remember if mine was exactly the same (1970) but I think it was.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,, :mrgreen:

 

[Hodgins]

That's the one (I think). Bentleys says to undo the screw 15 turns and then hit on the screw head to drive it back, thus releasing the retaining strip and removal of cover.

Obviously not that simple, and I shall no doubt be as elated as you when I do finally get it off with the cover in one piece :?

 

[ozziedog]

That's the one (I think). Bentleys says to undo the screw 15 turns and then hit on the screw head to drive it back, thus releasing the retaining strip and removal of cover.

Obviously not that simple, and I shall no doubt be as elated as you when I do finally get it off with the cover in one piece :?

I think that once upon a time, it was exactly that simple. But age comes with a price tag I`m afraid (rust). I wonder if they did in fact change it from a screw into a pipe / bar on the end to a nut and threaded bar which may be cheaper to produce and be slightly easier to undo with age in the equation. I`ve just had a thought that might help. When I`ve done it before I used a very thin to the point of flexible scraper to get in both sides of the gasket / strip, part of the problem was that the strip had a bead on the top that I didn`t know about which made it ackward to get the scraper in. I used a much more stout scraper (on the second one) with a plastic piece to lever against to protect the cover and then used this bead to gradually lever out the gasket and a combination of the two did it in the end. You could possibly use an old or knackered set of feeler gauges to slip down the sides to free it.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Good luck,,,, and patience :mrgreen: